Yet Another PIA Crew Member Goes Missing After Arriving In Canada

Recently, another Pakistan International Airlines flight attendant disappeared in Canada after crewing a flight to the country. This is not a new event as Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crew members have been abandoning their posts in foreign lands since at least 2019, although it seems to have picked up pace recently.

It seems more will follow this practice

On January 19, 2024, Pakistan Airlines International (PIA) flight PK781 departed Islamabad International Airport (ISB) at 16:21, bound for Toronto, Canada. The flight was operated with a 2005 Boeing 777-200LR, registration AP-BGY and MSN 33781. Tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) at 19:47.

According to The Media Line, onboard was flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar, who was rostered to return to Pakistan the next day on PK784 to Karachi Jinnah International (KHI). PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan said that Faiza Mukhtar “did not board the flight and disappeared.”

This is becoming a trend at PIA, as in 2023, at least seven of the airline’s flight attendants disappeared after landing in Canada on their duty flight. Khan confirmed that in late December, Syed Ali Abbas and Farkhanda Shaheen, two cabin crew on a PIA flight from Lahore Allama International (LHE) that arrived in Toronto, also failed to report for their next flight.

Photo: jremes84 | Shutterstock

Earlier in December, Ayaz Qureshi failed to turn up for duty after arriving in Toronto from Lahore, while in November, Khalid Afridi and Fida Hussain Shah also went missing soon after arriving in Toronto from Islamabad. The report added “that several others also slipped away in Canada in the months before that.”

What is driving this wave of disappearances?

There appear to be two schools of thought about the motivation of these flight attendants in abandoning their posts, with one theory being that low salaries for flight attendants and fears about their future due to the airline’s expected privatization are the main drivers.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

PIA’s perspective is that Canada’s relatively liberal asylum policies are to blame, and Khan said that “crews seeking asylum are common throughout South Asia and other developing countries, therefore this situation is not exclusive to PIA.”

“There is no failure [on the part of the airline] as we have tried to put in the most stringent possible efforts to curtail that. However, the laws of Canada are so liberal that those measures become counter-effective. On the other hand, we are now seeking some legal measures against the perpetrators, involving law enforcement agencies.”

To its credit, PIA has not just accepted the risk of crew absconding, and Khan explained that the airline had attempted to stop the flow by raising the minimum age for flight attendants traveling to Canada, believed to be 50, and setting up a special unit to investigate the disappearances. PIA is also monitoring the situation, and Khan said it is keeping an eye on flight attendants to make sure they are not engaged in any strange conduct or sending money abroad.

As for disciplinary procedures, the airline said anyone abandoning their duty will be fired and subject to serious legal action as soon as they return to Pakistan. Media Line reported that a Shazia Saeed arrived in Paris in 2019 on PK734 and vanished after “sneaking” away from the crew’s hotel, and since then, another five disappearances have occurred on flights from various cities in Pakistan to Toronto, Canada.

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